It's only the castings that are 1:3, all the internals are full size, hence the lovely sound.

Somehow I don't think so.

The smallest piston in the full size flathead (not the V8-60) was 3 1/16" in. diam. Later flatheads went to 3 3/16" in. diameter pistons. Many builders seeking performance gains over bored and would sometime go to 3 3/8" . Some special builds have gone beyond that.

This means the collective diameters of all full size pistons would be at least 12 inches. Those rocker covers by my eye are not 12 in. length but closer to 6 in. The internal dimensions would likewise need to be scaled down.

That's why the Biante Series cars were allowed to run NASCAR blocks... they couldn't find a block they could bore safely.

Also, for older engines, I believe the more temperate climate in Australia has left a lot of iron-headed engines thinner in the bores over the years. Whereas in America and Europe the use of anti-freeze (with its attendant anti-corrosive properties) was commonplace, here your old Dodge truck got tap water - on a good day. Dam water otherwise.

That's why the Biante Series cars were allowed to run NASCAR blocks... they couldn't find a block they could bore safely.

Also, for older engines, I believe the more temperate climate in Australia has left a lot of iron-headed engines thinner in the bores over the years. Whereas in America and Europe the use of anti-freeze (with its attendant anti-corrosive properties) was commonplace, here your old Dodge truck got tap water - on a good day. Dam water otherwise.

Yes I think we have had this discussion before. I have found imported blocks are far less rusty than our home grown.Far too many are very rusty. Though using Nascar blocks in Muscle Car is more for horsepower than getting blocks. Nascar blocks are stronger though generally no thicker. in fact often lighter.Or at least a Chev is.All blocks should go .030 with no dramas. I try to use .020 these days. Nascar/ Super car blocks though are in very short supply these days as Supercars [Chevs] use an orphan short deck block and Nascar is pure race engine these days. 360 Sprinters are / were using those blocks as they are supposed to be production GM blocks.I dont quite understand how that equates to a special race block.And dam water, they got water that was advailable, even salt water, water from a puddle. Even Coca Cola!! That kept the farm trucks moving.

For those of you (see above, you know who you are) who actually care about stone age Yank Tanks, here's the latest Car Spotter's Guide at Motor City Garage: the 1932 to 1942 Chevrolet passenger cars.

In this series, dozens and dozens of original factory photos and renderings are used to illustrate the differences in years and models. Why? MCG takes the view that the venerable skill of car spotting, so prized by society today, is not strictly God-given; it can also be learned.

One thing I've learned at Mac's Motor City Garage that maybe surprised me a little: Gearheads LOVE operating model engines. Sure they're neat, and I certainly enjoy them myself, but I didn't really foresee how hot the interest would be.

(If people have theories about why that may be, please share them. I find the question intriguing.)

But anyway, the interest is especially great for engines with a healthy sound -- the more like the real thing, the more people like 'em. So here's a quarter-scale flathead V8 by Ron Colonna that folks are probably going to enjoy a lot.

Sounds surprisingly like a full scale engine. I expected a higher pitched less throaty sound but really why should I have? I wonder how much research has gone into studying the acoustic properties of engines from an aesthetic rather than a strictly noise reduction standpoint? Seems to me like something Americans would do for some reason.

Sounds surprisingly like a full scale engine. I expected a higher pitched less throaty sound but really why should I have? I wonder how much research has gone into studying the acoustic properties of engines from an aesthetic rather than a strictly noise reduction standpoint? Seems to me like something Americans would do for some reason.

At most two SAE papers a year. The Japanese occasionally get into it in a big way.

In the eighties and nineties there was a lot of work done on engine harshness, which was typically caused by exciting the torsional and bending mode of the crank at the same time, a bit like pressing two adjacent piano keys, but worse. A crankshaft bending damper was one cure, retuning the TV damper another. It is pretty easy to do by ear, but usually the engine durability boys want some say in the TV tuning.

I can think of a couple of other examples where subjective engine noises get attention - the case of the V8 that wouldn't rumble, and the turbo exhausts that blew raspberries (you can probably guess what that was).

I also had some reasonably definitive recordings of engines that had top spec mains and big ends, vs those with wide open bearings.

Falcon, briefly, had a 12 counterweight crankshaft which I helped design (actually ISVR in the UK did the balance design), that went into production solely to improve the sound of the engine. I think it lasted for two years before being cost reduced out.

This is the secret weapon for engine noise development, the binaural head isn't necessary, but the real time filtering /synthesis software is the biz.

Desmo, didn't that documentary about McLaren road car feature the sound engineer being brought to help design the sound they wanted?

(On a more or less related note, I stopped paying attention to anything from car industry, as well as those ghastly car shows on TV after seeing a piece on Audi's 'smell department' where they tested and designed the smell of a new car, tested how different materials smelled when combined and when exposed to heat, &c and finally went around the car sniffing around like a bunch of hound dogs- that was the last straw for me... It would be bad enough that they were doing something like that, but bragging about it?!? FFS!)

here's the latest on a project started by a friend of mine 25 years ago, in which he synthesised the sound of a corvette synced to the throttle pedal and rpm of a little Citreon http://www.greencarc...-engineeri.html - looks like it hasn't really found a home yet.

My father had a binaural tape recorder, may have been Hitachi, the headphones had microphones in each earpiece, and a polystyrene head was included with a threaded insert in the neck for mounting on a tripod. You could use either this ghostly interpretation of a human or walk around wearing the 'phones. I borrowed it for the British GP at Silverstone in about 1983, the playback was stunning, but could have been better, as I had a tendency to swivel my head to follow the cars visually, which sometimes gave rather confusing results aurally. I have no idea where the tape is, and of course, no tape player.

Look at this old disc I found! It says Bluray or something, no idea what that is - what's it supposed to do?